The most obvious bump in the road occurred in the Middle East. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) facilitated deposition of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya was supposed to be the "shake the Etch-a-Sketch" moment (Mitt Romney campaign-speak for wiping away accumulated negative memories and replacing them with new, favorable impressions) that established the United States as the principled champion of democracy and popular aspirations in the Arab world.

It turned out that plenty of people (and, apparently, at least one government) still remembered the whole invasion of Iraq/support of Israel against the Palestinians/backstopping Gulf autocrats/we were for Hosni Mubarak before we were against him/magillah.